Grammar? There's an App for That

By Maddie Schubert, ARC Consultant

Do you struggle with grammar? Do you avoid playing Mad Libs in public because you don’t want to get caught confusing nouns and verbs? Are you tired of your Great-Aunt Tabby correcting everything you say?

There’s an app for that.

Seriously though, there really is an app for everything, including brushing up on your grammar. In my quest for informative, fun, and effective grammar apps however, I did discover that not all apps are created equal. Here is a list of some of the better (and free!) ones, although, as you will see, there are both positive and negative aspects to each.

(Note: These apps are all from Apple iTunes because that is the device that I have access to, I apologize if some of these can’t be found for non-Apple products)

• English Illustrated Idioms: Provides comic-strip illustrations of English idioms, including where they come from and what they mean now. This is one of the most interesting grammar apps, but only applies to the narrow category of idioms. 

• Grammar Up and Grammar Express: Very thorough quizzes and ways to keep track of your scores by category, however there is no explanation or teaching guide anywhere. Grammar Express apps go in-depth into a single topic, depending on which app you choose (e.g. Tenses, Pronouns, Articles etc.) 

• Mad Libs: A digital version of the classic car-ride and party game. Comes with 21 free stories (with the opportunity to purchase more), offers a review page on the parts of speech, and is set up so that you can play either in a group or on your own. 

• Grammaropolis: The School House rock for a modern generation (likely the generation younger than us, but I personally will never outgrow catchy grammar songs). This app provides videos, books, music videos, and quizzes for each part of speech. This is absolutely my favorite app for learning the parts of speech, but the free version unfortunately only offers the material for nouns. If you want to learn about the other parts of speech, you have to purchase the full version of the app.

• Grading Game: This is your opportunity to test your paper editing skills. You choose what level of paper you wish to edit (college, graduate, etc.) and try to find as many mistakes as you can in a short period of time. The only downfall is that the game instructs you to give a person the worst grade possible as quickly as you can—an unfortunate and skewed view of the grading process, but still quite entertaining. 

• English Grammar 2: A thorough, though not flashy or entertaining, app to practice basic English skills. Provides fill-in the blank quizzes about parts of speech and tenses, flashcards of English vocabulary, articles about different elements of grammar, and the ability to track your statistics on quizzes.